Southern Research Station

Title: Forestry herbicide influences on biodiversity and wildlife habitat in southern forests

Author: Miller, Karl V.; Miller, James H.

Date: 2004

Source: Wildlife Society Bulletin 2004, 32(4):1049-1060

Description: In the southern United States, herbicide use continues to increase for timber management in commercial pine (Pinus spp.) plantations, for mod@ing wildlife habitats, and for invasive plant control. Several studies have reported that single applications of forestry herbicides at stand initiation have minor and temporary impacts on plant communities and wildlife habitat conditions, with some reports of enhanced habitat conditions for both game and nongame species. Due to the high resiliency of floral communities, plant species richness and diversity rebound rapidly after single herbicide treatments, with short- and long-term compositional shifts according to the selectivity and efficacy of the herbicide used. Recently, however, a shift to the Southeast in North American timber supplies has resulted in increased forest management intensity. Current site-preparation techniques rely on herbicide combinations, often coupled with mechanical treatments and 21 years of post-planting applications to enhance the spectrum and duration of vegetation control. This near-total control of associated vegetation at establishment and more rapid pine canopy closure, coupled with shortened and repeated rotations, likely will affect plant diversity and wildlife habitat quality. Development of mitigation methods at the stand and landscape levels will be required to minimize vegetative and wildlife impacts while allowing continued improvement in pine productivity. More uncertain are long-term impacts of increasing invasive plant occupation and the projected increase in herbicide use that will be needed to reverse this worsening situation. In addition, the potential of herbicides to meet wildlife management objectives in areas where traditional techniques have high social costs (e.g., prescribed fire) should be fully explored.

Keywords: Biodiversity, habitat, herbicide, release treatment, site preparation, Southeast, wildlife

View and Print this Publication (1.4 MB)

Pristine Version:  An uncaptured or "pristine" version of this publication is available. It has not been subjected to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and therefore does not have any errors in the text. However it is a larger file size and some people may experience long download times. The "pristine" version of this publication is available here:

View and Print the PRISTINE copy of this Publication (2.2 MB)

Publication Notes: 

• We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
• This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

 Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility

Citation

Miller, Karl V.; Miller, James H.  2004.  Forestry herbicide influences on biodiversity and wildlife habitat in southern forests.   Wildlife Society Bulletin 2004, 32(4):1049-1060